Your Guide to Becoming a Living Organ Donor

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), there are over 103,000 people on the organ transplant waitlist as of September 2024. Astonishingly, almost 90,000 of them are waiting for a kidney transplant while a little over 9,000 need a liver transplant. What’s interesting about this is that they don’t have to wait for someone to be deceased to receive these organs. A living donor can give a kidney or a part of their liver to someone who needs it. And yet, every day 17 people die waiting for an organ transplant. The latest numbers show that only five percent of organ donations come from living donors. You can make a difference in someone’s life by becoming a living donor so let’s look at what you need to do for that to happen.  Criteria for Living Donors The criteria you need to meet may vary depending on the organ you want to donate but there are a few general ones. You should be in good physical health, between the ages of 18 and 65, willing to avoid alcohol or certain medications for at least six weeks before surgery and two months after it, and at a BMI of 32...